Document Type
Book Section
Publication Date
10-2023
ISBN
9781509961665
Abstract
This chapter builds on previous research to present a sampling of cases in the US, primarily in the twenty-first century, in order to show the harshness and disparity in criminal charges, defences and sentences. The broad term ‘infanticide’ is used for child-murder cases, and the more specific term ‘neonaticide’ is used for the killing of a child in the first 24 hours after birth. This chapter also describes the more recent use of genetic genealogy to solve cold cases of neonaticide. It concludes by considering how the absence of an infanticide offence and expanded defences results in an incoherent, unjust and irrational approach that ignores women’s vulnerabilities and fails to acknowledge the patterned nature of these cases.
First Page
245
Last Page
273
Num Pages
29
Publisher
Hart Publishing
Editor
Karen Brennan & Emma Milne
Book Title
100 Years of the Infanticide Act: Legacy, Impact and Future Directions
Recommended Citation
Susan Ayres,
A Crazy Quilt: Infanticide in the United States,
in
100 Years of the Infanticide Act: Legacy, Impact and Future Directions
245
(Karen Brennan & Emma Milne eds., 2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1946
File Type
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Legal History Commons